Merapi, the most active volcano in Indonesia, sits on the northern part of Yogyakarta province where about 1.5 million residents live. In 2006 short after eruption, Merapi area was hit by a 5.9 magnitude earthquake that destroyed the Yogyakarta’s natural barrier, known as Geger Boyo. The pyroclastic flow threat from Merapi becomes more imminent ever since. The Merapi eruption in 2006 and 2010 also brought up social drama when a local key person with several of his followers rejected the government’s evacuation mandatory. Those occasions could happen because the government who rely more on technological equipment failed to build effective communication with the local community. The government with an obligation to save people live have a tendency to give direct orders that need to be obeyed. On the other hand, local community has their own wisdom in dealing with the event, which could be more influential for them.

The paper attempts to discuss some improvements that could be done in understanding the Merapi area by adding several factors attributing to the local wisdoms. Those factors include: land attachment, local knowledge and beliefs, local leader’s influence, and local conventions. The challenge is to inventory, to identify, and then to spatialize those local wisdoms. These will lead to the creation a new vulnerability map which includes local attributes. It is hope that the risk map as a resultant of vulnerability and hazard maps would give information regarding local wisdom.